No Tough Love

I've never been a huge fan of sports games but there is one that I can always play and that game is Mario Tennis. If you haven't gone back and played a N64 game since its heyday, then you probably don't know that the controls from that generation are pretty balls and most games haven't aged that well, or at all.

Unlike its fallen brethren, Mario Tennis doesn't suffer from the same issues as Goldeneye and Ocarina of Time—which make you question how you had so much fun playing these games while wrestling with the three pronged monster that was the "controller"—but it rises above all that and sits atop the pedestal alongside Super Smash Bros. and Diddy Kong Racing, with the other still playable games from that era in gaming not too far away.

I've owned this game since I was a kid but to be honest, I hadn't given it much thought until I played it recently with some buddies at a friend's apartment and it all came back to me. I realized that this game was a lot better than I ever thought it was; the controls were simple and you could pick up the basics within a round or two and after a few sets you've learned all the in's and out's. In the same vein as most Mario games, all the characters fall into different classifications—whether it be all-around, power, technique, or tricky—each brings a different strength to the table and are pretty self explanatory. The different stages also change the games ball speed, bounce and overall feel of the game.

I've spent many a night playing doubles with a bunch of friends till the wee hours of the morning, hurling insults and trash talk at one another during nail biting, tie breaker rounds. If you can round up four working N64 controllers I recommend getting this game, it is too much fun for its own good and I honestly couldn't recommend it more highly. The game is super solid and hours of fun. Also if you like drinking game the rules are simple: Miss a shot? Take a drink; Get a fault? Take a drink; Double fault? Do a shot cause you suck; Losing team finishes there drink, rinse and repeat.